"It's a game." Whoever was more serious would admit defeat.She, for her sister, could make any sacrifice. But I never knew if I was really loved.She, who had been used as a substitute in a conspiracy, was in unspeakable pain.It was him who destroyed her, who harmed her elder sister …

Unlike other economies, family businesses in China are greatly affected by the derived Confucian culture, excessive marketization, as well as the seemingly endless institutional supervision by a transitional Chinese government. China has a strong historical legacy, devoted to patriarchal values and strong family-centered traditions.This volume discusses the current status, upcoming challenges, and future prospects for family businesses in China. It explores unique organizational ch...

The era of globalization saw China emerge as the world's manufacturing titan. However, the "made in China" model—with its reliance on cheap labor and thin profits—has begun to wane. Beginning in the 2000s, the Chinese state shifted from attracting foreign investment to promoting the technological competitiveness of domestic firms. This shift caused tensions between winners and losers, leading local bureaucrats to compete for resources in government budget, funding, and tax breaks. While bu...

High in the mountains of Bhutan, the wind doesn't just blow - it carries voices. In remote villages, along empty roads, and inside centuries-old temples, strange things still happen.Ghost Stories from Bhutan gathers stories from across the country, told with the quiet dread of people who vanished, of things that still wait, and of places best left alone.Whether it's a blessing gone wrong in The Annual Blessing, the echoes of The Singing Nun of Animo Gonpa, or the woman who ...

Bhutan is more than a beautiful Himalayan kingdom—it's home to a revolutionary idea: Gross National Happiness (GNH). Rooted in compassion, balance, and sustainability, GNH challenges the belief that progress is measured only by materialistic pursuit.This book reveals how Bhutan's unique philosophy has become a global inspiration, guiding conversations on mindfulness, sustainable living, and human well-being.For readers drawn to Bhutan, spirituality, or the search for a more...

In the past 30 years or so, reform and opening-up are the two major themes for China's economic and social development. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has made great explorations in the depth and breadth of opening-up. This book provides a comprehensive overview of some issues and policies of mutual benefit and win-win strategies, which include China's foreign trade and technical barriers to trade, China's technology progress, China's service outsourcing industry, China's d...

Considering Asian cities ranging from Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok to Hanoi, Nanjing and Seoul, this collection discusses the socio-political processes of how neoliberalization entwines with local political economies and legacies of ‘developmental’ or ‘socialist’ statism to produce urban contestations centered on housing. The book takes housing as a key entry point, given its prime position in the making of social and economic policies as well as the political legitimacy of Asian states. ...

David R. Maines (1940-2021), one of the most important sociological scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries, constructed a vast area of research to advance the field of symbolic interactionism during his career. Highlighting the significance of Maines’ works in symbolic interactionism, Festschrift in Honor of David R. Maines documents his most celebrated areas of scholarship, including social structure, narrative sociology, social interaction, dialectic perspective, temporality, a...

Acting as a follow up to Volume 41 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction (2013), Symbolic Interaction and Inequality explores further the concept of Radical Interactionism, a perspective of researching domination and subordination introduced by scholar Lonnie Athens.Demonstrating advancements made in Radical Interactionism over the past decade, chapters examine the omnipresent and insidious nature of inequality as well as its social construction among family members,...

This book summarizes the recent advances in applications of starch in state-of-the-art drug carriers (hydrogel, micro- and nano-particulate carriers) with stimulus-responsive and target-specific properties. It also highlights the role of starch and its derivatives in transmucosal administration to improve the bioavailability of drugs. Further, it outlines the principles of effective, advanced, starch-based drug delivery systems and illustrates how these principles are key to the developmen...

AI Computing Systems: An Application Driven Perspective adopts the principle of "application-driven, full-stack penetration" and uses the specific intelligent application of "image style migration" to provide students with a sound starting place to learn. This approach enables readers to obtain a full view of the AI computing system. A complete intelligent computing system involves many aspects such as processing chip, system structure, programming environment, software, etc., making it a ...

The new social media build on and further complicate all of the issues and processes of symbolic interaction. This volume builds on and expands the existing symbolic interactionist perspective to include the study of social interaction made possible by the use of new social media. This special issue demonstrates the interface between willful social interaction and structured technological features - how social media are defined by social interactions, as well as how social interactions are...